eTheses Repository - University of Birmingham

3.5.5 Meteorological data for model validation
Limited meteorological data was available for the model validation. Temperature, wind
speed and wind direction data were obtained from the British Atmospheric Data Centre
(BADC) for the MIDAS (UK Met Office land surface weather stations) network in and
around London.
The MIDAS network (http://badc.nerc.ac.uk/data/ukmo-midas) comprises of daily and
hourly rain measurements, soil temperature, daily temperature, mean wind measurements
and hourly weather which form a long term record of UK weather conditions. The hourly
weather data includes measurements of wind speed and direction, air temperature, as well
as information on cloud types and amounts, and visibility. Each MIDAS network station is
identified via a unique source identifier. General guidelines exist for the location of sites
and measurement methods and heights 2 . Not all sites however meet these requirements, for
example sites located in city centres may be located on roof tops, or close to large obstacles
and this may compromise the validity of the measurements.
The MIDAS stations used were the London Weather Centre (LWC), which is classified as
an urban station; the Heathrow airport station (classified as peri-urban) and St James’s Park
(classified as an urban green space station) (see Figure 3.6). These three stations were
chosen because they provide the most comprehensive data sets and are located in the
London area. All three have hourly measurements of air temperature, wind speed and
direction for at least the last ten years, although data can be missing for some periods.
2 Met Office Surface Data Users Guide (UK Met Office document, taken from MIDAS Data User Guide), available at
http://badc.nerc.ac.uk/data/ukmo-midas/
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